Peyton Place

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Fifty two years after it's initial publication, Peyton Place still rocks the world with it's alternatively adult and near-sordid depiction of the dark secrets underneath a fictional New England town in the 1930s, as seen through the eyes of the book's central character Allison MacKenzie. There's alcoholism, incest, murder, teen age sex, abortion, illegitimate births, rape and so much more going on that it's easy to forget Metalious has managed to put together a riveting narrative that holds the audience's attention, even when shifting from one group of characters (there's quite a large cast) and situations to another. Metalious' then groundbreaking frank description of adult situations caused a lot of outrage in it's day (critics especially hated it), yet today college English Lit professors assign the book to their students with no angry outcries resulting. And it's a fun read to boot!
-Ed

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